Global Map of Irrigation Areas
Denmark
The irrigable area of Denmark was 476 000 ha in 1997, 446 920 ha in 2000 and 448 820 ha in 2003, while the area irrigated at least once in a year was 201 480 ha in 2003 [DK01]. It was assumed, that the area equipped for irrigation is 476 000 ha and thus similar to the maximum of the irrigable areas reported for the period 1997-2003. No sub-national irrigation statistics were available.
Maps showing the location of irrigation areas in Denmark were not available but it was reported that irrigation is mainly used in horticulture or to grow semi-intensive or intensive field crops like maize, potatoes and sugar beets on coarse textured or shallow soils ([DK02], [DK03]). Irrigated area was therefore assigned to all regions of coarse soil texture [DK04] classified as non-irrigated arable land (211), fruit trees and berry plantations (222) or complex cultivation patterns (242) in the Corine 2000 land cover data base for Europe [DK05]. The following priority levels were assigned to the classes.
| Attribute in Corine land cover 2000 data base |
Attributes in soil map * |
Priority |
Area (ha) |
Non-irrigated arable land (211) or
fruit trees and berry plantations (222)
or complex cultivation patterns (242) |
SLTXCL = 1 and
SLTXCL2 = 1 |
5 |
984 530 |
Non-irrigated
arable land (211) or
fruit trees and berry plantations (222)
or complex
cultivation patterns (242) |
SLTXCL = 1 and
SLTXCL2 > 1
or
SLTXCL > 1 and
SLTXCL2 = 1 |
4 |
1 049 937 |
| *: SLTXCL represents the soil texture class of the main soil type while SLTXCL2 is the soil texture class of an associated soil; a soil texture
class of 1 is assigned to soils having less than 18% clay content and more
than 65% sand content. |
It was furthermore assumed that the density of irrigated areas in priority 5 regions is three times larger than the irrigation density in polygons of priority 4. As result 351 168 ha irrigated area were assigned to polygons of priority 5 and 124 832 ha to polygons of priority 4.
References
[DK01]: Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). 2006. Irrigation by regions. Online data base (available at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu), 07/07/2006.
[DK02]: Baldock, D., Caraveli, H., Dwyer, J., Einschütz, S., Petersen, J.E., Sumpsi-Vinas, J., Varela-Ortega, C. 2000. The environmental impacts of irrigation in the European Union. A report to the Environment Directorate of the European Commission, 147 pp., available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/agriculture/, 07/07/2006.
[DK03]: Danish Environmental Protection Agency. 2004. Nature & Environment 2003 – Theme: Water in Denmark. Online report available at: http://www.mst.dk/homepage/default.asp? Sub=http://www.mst.dk/udgiv/Publications/2004/87-7614-3805/html/
helepubl_eng.htm#kap01_eng, 07/07/2006.
[DK04]: The Commission of the European Communities, Directorate General for Agriculture, Coordination of Agricultural Research. 1985. Soil Map of the European Communities at 1:1 000 000. The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, ISBN 92-825-5427-9, L-2985 Luxembourg, 124 pages (modified version available in digital format as data set GNV153 at http://www.grid.unep.ch/data/, 07/07/2006).
[DK05]: EEA. 2005. Corine land cover 2000 – vector by country (CLC2000), version 1. (available at: http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/dataservice/metadetails.asp?id=667
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© FAO, NRL (2009) 
